The Importance of Clarity
While reading The Bell Jar, I found the shock therapy scenes to be particularly striking, more importantly, Esther’s reactions and the contrast between her experiences with Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan. Though the nurses seemed to be the ones to actually perform the treatment, they were under the instruction of the scenes’ respective doctors, and her reactions subsequently affected her perception of the doctors.
Going into her first shock treatment, Esther didn’t seem to fully understand exactly what was going to happen (When she was first told about shock treatment, she said she was curious about what it was). And, leading up to treatment itself, it still wasn’t explained; she was only told it was normal to be scared, “‘Don’t worry,’ the nurse grinned down at me. ‘Their first time everybody's scared to death.’ I tried to smile, but my skin had gone stiff, like parchment. … Then something bent down and took hold of me and shook me like the end of the world. Whee-ee-ee-ee-ee, it shrilled, through an air crackling with blue light, and with each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break…” Following the treatment, she “wondered what terrible thing it was that [she] had done” (Plath 183). For something supposed to help her, you wouldn’t expect that sort of reaction. Without proper warning, Esther’s reaction was far worse than what it could’ve been. Dr. Gordon also didn’t properly execute her shock treatment as he didn’t provide any form of anesthesia, making the experience even worse.
I think this is where the distinction comes in with Dr. Nolan. Of course, Esther had grown to trust Dr. Nolan in general, but her shock treatment comes right after Esther feels betrayed as she wasn’t given a long enough notice. This time around, the nurse better prepared Esther. She said that Esther would “be perfectly all right,” and that she “won’t feel a thing” (Plath 275). Earlier in the book, Dr. Nolan also helped calm Esther by telling her that shock therapy would be like going to sleep when done properly (Plath 243). Dr. Nolan and the nurse’s approach worked quite a lot better, and she was also given anesthesia this time around. In contrast to her previously very negative reaction to the shock treatment, she instead commented on how peaceful she felt and how “The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above [her] head” (Plath 275).
Esther’s polar opposite reactions put into perspective how different things can be depending on what approach you take. Especially considering Esther was already quite on edge going into her treatment with Dr. Nolan–due to the lack of warning and bad experience with Dr. Gordon–her calm attitude towards the experience afterward really stood out to me. It depicted the importance of clarity and how much better things can go with just a little bit of explaining prior.
Hi Sandaru, interesting choice of topic for your blog. I feel like the shock therapy experiences are representations of how each doctor makes Esther feel. Dr. Gordon makes her feel uneasy and quite disturbed; to Esther he is a bad doctor that is incapable of curing her and the shock treatment he administers has exactly this effect. In the case of Dr. Nolan, Esther feels quite the opposite as Dr. Nolan better understands her and makes her feel comfortable. Esther trusts Dr. Nolan and genuinely believes that with this doctor's help, she can be cured. This time around, the shock therapy actually helps Esther and is a far better experience. Like you mention, the clarity provided by Dr. Nolan at the start of the treatment is what really helps Esther. With Dr. Gordon, she had an absolute lack of clarity that paved the way for her bad experiences with his treatment.
ReplyDeleteHi Sandy! I love this blog topic! I really like the distinction you make between the two nurses administrating the shock therapy and how a difference of a few words can make the biggest difference. When I was reading Esther's shock therapy scene in Dr. Nolan's office I was honestly expecting the worst. I didn't think that shock therapy could be helpful to Esther especially after Dr. Gordan's experience, so Esther's calmness also surprised me. Though a topic on The Bell Jar, I think your resolution at the end can apply to many thing's in life. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteHey Sandaru, I totally agree with you that Esther's psychiatric experience widely differed between the two professionals. While Dr. Gordon depicted the treatment as the easy solution toward recovery, it appeared otherwise. To Esther, it felt like a weird contraption that only further increased the pain and anxiety during the entire process. On the other hand, Dr. Nolan's calm nature and explained procedure helped alleviate the therapy.
ReplyDeleteI love this perspective on the different doctors. I think Esther already has a lot of apprehension about Dr. Gordon and further than that, he betrayed her trust. The exact opposite was true for Dr. Nolan: she loved her from the beginning and she furthered her trust. And I think it's especially telling what happens following each shock treatment. Esther becomes more depressed and scared the first time, while the second time she feels less anxious and suicidal. And with a more optimistic spin on the ambiguous ending, Dr. Nolan might have ended up saving Esther's life. I think it's interesting that these personality differences actually influenced Esther's character development too.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's vitally important that Dr. Nolan is so confident in her ability to criticize Gordon, to declare (with professional disgust) that he did not administer the shock therapy correctly. Esther sees not only a woman psychologist ("I didn't know they had those") but one who knows her stuff and is actually MORE authoritative than the overconfident and highly privileged Dr. Gordon. So it's both empowering that the treatments actually DO work, but also that Esther gets this view of a woman doctor as an authority and a source of healing and compassion.
ReplyDeleteElectroshock therapy is maybe the most notorious and highly visible form of psychological treatment in the popular imagination, second only maybe to lobotomy (and we do see lobotomy patients in Plath's novel, too). It seems to epitomize the stigmas surrounding a mental-health facility, where "patients" are subject to obscure forms of torture and forced medication that do nothing to heal them. (Esther experiences her first electroshock as "punishment" for something bad she must have done.) But it is in fact a rather specialized and effective treatment technique that is still commonly used today--and while Plath does tap into the "torture" image with Gordon, she corrects the picture with Nolan. One thing this novel achieves is to show HOW treatments like lithium and electroshock actually can be very effective at reordering a disordered mind.
Your analysis of the shock therapy scenes in The Bell Jar effectively highlights the stark contrast between Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan. Esther's traumatic experience with Dr. Gordon, due to a lack of explanation and proper care, reinforces her distrust in the medical system. However, Dr. Nolan's reassuring approach and proper execution of the treatment help Esther feel safer and more at ease. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting detail to focus on! I think another interesting aspect of this difference is the fact that Dr. Nolan has made her feel comfortable and affirmed the fact that her negative experiences with shock therapy should not have gone the way that they did. Part of what Esther dislikes so much about the medical system is how women are so often not viewed as people, but merely as medical equipment, and Dr. Nolan is able to make Esther feel like she is being seen and heard, and not just being used. This was a great post!
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